Lisbon, Nov. 7 (Lusa) – The chief executive of Portugal's Santander Totta, António Vieira Monteiro, said on Wednesday that some "two hundred people" had left the bank, a subsidiary of Spain's Banco Santander, this year, with all of them having taken voluntary redundancy.
"Santander does not make dismissals,” he said at a news conference to present the bank’s third-quarter financial results. “Any departures were by mutual agreement."
At the end of September the bank had 6,677 employees, up from 6,781 at the end of last year; however, in October a few more workers are expected to leave the company.
As part of the merger process following the acquisition of Banco Popular, since the beginning of this year the bank has closed 87 branches, with that total set to rise to 100 by December. These were above all branches very close to existing Santander Totta units that the bank could not justify keeping open, Vieira Monteiro said.
The chief executive also said that the switch to the shorter name, Santander, that was previously announced, is to take place only at the brand level, since it is cheaper to maintain the official company name of Santander Totta.
The bank announced that profits in the first nine months of this year were up 16% on the same period of last year, at €384.9 million.
The integration of Banco Popular was concluded on 14 October, it said.